HOME RUNS: TOR - CARLOS DELGADO (4) OFF PARKER IN THE 1ST, 1 ON
JOSE CRUZ JR (1) OFF PARKER IN THE 4TH, 1 ON
CARLOS DELGADO (5) OFF C ALMANZAR IN THE 4TH,
2 ON
NYY - PAUL ONEILL (2) OFF PAINTER IN THE 8TH, 0 ON

BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- Carlos Delgado continued his
opening-week assault with two more home runs as the Toronto Blue
Jays routed the New York Yankees, 13-4, spoiling Christian
Parker's major league debut.

Delgado hit a two-run homer off Parker in the top of the first
inning and a three-run shot off Carlos Almanzar in the fourth,
giving him five in five games this season. On Wednesday, he had
three homers in a game for the third time in his career.

"I've never seen the guy (Parker) before, so I was going to stay
with my strength," Delgado, who only has six hits. "I'm a
fastball hitter. He threw me a fastball and it looked good.
You want to take what they give you."

Jose Cruz also belted a two-run blast in the fourth for the Blue
Jays, who have 11 homers. Toronto led the American League with
244 homers last season and had seven players with at least 20,
tying an AL record.

"Last year, we did pretty well offensively," Delgado said.
"Everybody's pretty relaxed. We're just going to go out there
and try to hit the ball hard."

Blue Jays starter Esteban Loaiza (2-0) was the beneficiary of
the offense, allowing two runs and eight hits over seven innings
and handing the three-time defending world champions their first
loss of the season. He walked none and struck out six.

Loaiza has gone seven innings in each of his first two starts,
giving up only three runs.

"I just tried to do the best job possible -- having all my
pitches for strikes and locating the ball," he said. "That's
what's been happening the last two starts."

"He's been great both times out," Toronto manager Buck Martinez
said. "He's really got a lot of confidence now. He's got good
command of his fastball. We know that the Yankees are a very
patient hitting ballclub and if you pitch ahead your changes are
better."

The Yankees opened the year with a three-game sweep of the
Kansas City Royals, getting superb starts from Roger Clemens,
Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina. But Parker (0-1), who earned
the No. 5 spot in the rotation in spring training after going
14-6 at Class AA Norwich last season, was pounded early.

The 25-year-old righthander was one out away from escaping the
first inning but Delgado crushed the first pitch he saw over the
left-center field fence to give the Blue Jays a 2-0 lead.

Brad Fullmer delivered a two-run single in the third before the
Blue Jays broke it open with five runs in the fourth. Parker
surrendered seven runs and eight hits over three-plus innings.
Still, he was not entirely disappointed with his performance.

"I handled some hitters and did some things that I wanted to
do," said Parker, who was acquired in the trade that sent Hideki
Irabu to the Montreal Expos last March.

"When he got the ball down, he got the right results," New York
manager Joe Torre said. "I think some of it may have been that
he was trying to hard. If you make a mistake against this club,
you're going to know about it quickly. Unfortunately, you know
they're a tough club and they don't allow you to make mistakes."

Almanzar yielded two runs and four hits over three innings in
his Yankees' debut. Parker left after giving up a single to
rookie Ryan Freel but after getting one out, Almanzar
surrendered a single to Alex Gonzalez and Delgado's three-run
homer into the right-field seats.

Every starter had at least one hit for the Blue Jays, who banged
out 16. Toronto was 6-for-9 with two outs and runners in scoring
position.

"We just got to get good pitches to hit," Freel said. "Nobody
was threatened by the guy (Parker). All we wanted to do was get
good pitches to hit."

"We knew his thing was going to be the sinker and we were just
hoping that with a young kid we could get after him early,"
Toronto catcher Darrin Fletcher added. "We were able to put some
runners on base and keep pressure on him. He looked good. He's
got some promise."

The Yankees reached Lance Painter for a pair of runs in the
eighth on Paul O'Neill's solo homer and David Justice's RBI
double to pull within 9-4. But the Blue Jays reached Randy
Choate and Todd Williams for four runs in the ninth.

Williams gave up a two-run double to Tony Batista and an RBI
single to Fletcher.